Interview - Darjeeling Limited

By Clint Morris
Interview with Jason Schwartzmann
Star of Darjeeling Limited

Jason Schwartmann has made some friends in hight places, including Wes Anderson, Steve Martin & Judd Apatow

Jason Schwartzmann kicked off his career by headlining the kind of smart and edgy comedy that most young actors his age would die for – Rushmore. After that, he somehow got lost in the world of teen comedies (Slackers), bad films based on once-good TV shows (Bewitched) and high-concept stinkers (S1mone).

Now, following his bravura turn as Louis XVI in Marie Antoinette and the loveless Jeremy in Steve Martin’s acclaimed Shopgirl, Schwartzman reunites with the man who gave him that first big break, writer/director Wes Anderson, for a film just as witty and special as his debut, The Darjeeling Limited. Clint Morris reports.

Good to see you again, Jason.
Oh yeah, that’s right – I thought you looked familiar. We talked last time I was here [in Australia] didn’t we? For Shopgirl?

I just love that movie – and Steve Martin, I love in that movie.
He’s good in that movie. He doesn’t play that kind of a guy very often; that was a brave thing to do. He wrote himself this part that’s hard to get around – and he plays it well.

Were you writing The Darjeeling Limited at that time? And if so, did Martin give you any pointers?
No. I had done Shopgirl and then I went away to do Marie Antoinette right after – whilst there I heard about idea for Darjeeling.

When I came home from doing Marie Antoinette I had to do some more press for Shopgirl and I saw Steve Martin at that time and its then that he asked me what I was working on. He also asked who I was writing it with and I said ‘Wes Anderson’, and he asked me what it was about and everything. The one thing I kinda liked that he said, but which was bizarre, was he said ‘is it like your kind of thing?’ I don’t know what he was trying to get at [Laughs].

But no, he was so encouraging to me on [Shopgirl]; he really just wanted me to go with it and have fun – I don’t think I would’ve felt complete freedom unless he’d given me permission. He gave me the passport to go to great places. I’m not the kind of person who goes ‘I know you’ve been working on this movie for years – but, here’s what I’m thinking…’. It’s normal to have your own thoughts about something but it’s nice when someone gives you the permission without you having to ask for it.

I remember meeting the director of Shopgirl and he was really excited about the prospect of working with me on the movie, and I was too, but then they called and said ‘Yeah, so the director really likes you but Steve Martin is the one you have to meet and convince as well’.

I got a call to say they wanted me to come and do a table reading at [Martin’s] house – I was really excited, but very nervous. I went up there and I was even more nervous – because it wasn’t a table reading, it was a bunch of tables and chairs with the people who were reading it on one side and on the other side it was all the people who were involved with the money on the other side watching us, like it was a play or something!

I was so nervous that I kept fumbling my lines, and I remember Steve Martin came up to me at the end and goes, ‘I liked it. I liked all the mumbling and fumbling of your lines; I like your take on the character’. It wasn’t a take on the character… I was just scared! [Laughs]

And where does this idea [Darjeeling] come from?
It comes from Wes [Anderson]. Even before I went away [to do Marie Antoinette] he said to me ‘I want to make a movie on a train with Adrien Brody’. I wasn’t even in it at that stage.
Since Rushmore, Wes has been like one of my best friends – we don’t see each other all the time, because I live in L.A and he lives in New York, but when we do see each other we always talking about working together on something. He’s always been a big part of my life – encouraging me… he’s actually the first person besides my mum (actress Talia Shire) to, well not not creative permission, but be nice to me in that way. So over the years we’d always be talking about doing stuff…

Were any of those things Rushmore 2?
None of those were Rushmore 2 – but there was a moment when I was going to be in The Royal Tenenbaums. I was going to play Morki, I would have worn a white-suit and drank chocolate milk; I was some kind of child prodigy or something. There were too many parts in the movie though, so mine was taken out – but they named the bird after me in the movie! [Morki].

So anyway, yeah, I always thought it would be great to go back and work together – especially now that I’m much more confident and we have a friendship compared to when I did Rushmore when we didn’t know each other and I was so nervous. Maybe it’d be more fun.

I was in Paris doing Marie Antoinette and he was doing press for Life Aquatic which ended in Paris, so we met up. I said to him just as we were leaving that ‘If you wanted to stay here a longer period of time you can stay with me in my place’. So he did – for like three and a half months. One evening, in Paris, he read me the opening of his script, ‘I’ve got India. Day. A businessman runs out…’ it was the whole thing and I said ‘Oh my god … that sounds so great!’, and he said ‘Well, this is what I want to work on with you. I want to make a movie about three brothers on a train in India – that’s all I’ve got, but I’d like to write it with you and I’d like to write it with Roman [Coppola]. And I’d like it to be the most personal script that I’ve ever written. Maybe even too personal. And we’d go to India and have this adventure…’ He was kind of like the character of Francis in the movie - It wasn’t a pitch, because we were all already in it and didn’t have a choice... So that’s how it happened.

Then, two-and-half-years onward, we’re here.

When did you know you were going to act in it?
Oh, immediately. Last time I was here I had a beard - I had a beard because I didn’t have the guts just to have a moustache – because I was about go and do [the short film that plays in front of Darjeeling] Hotel Chevalier. I remember I did a bunch of writing for the film whilst I was here [in Australia] last time, too – thankyou Woolloomooloo.

And how did you go with the moustache? Did you end up getting used to it?
I loved it. Loved it. I wish I could have it now. I think there’s something about facial hair – sometimes it can look groomed but then there’s other times when it looks all over the place and says ‘I’m confused’ or ‘something is amiss’. I can picture Ringo from The Beatles smoking a cigarette with a moustache during the White Album – because things were getting confusing then. That was the genesis for my character having a Moustache – something was amiss; maybe he didn’t always have a moustache?

When Natalie Portman’s character asks him who cut his hair, it was an indication that he had obviously changed his look… so maybe the moustache was new too? He was reassessing his situation… showing people that who he is now is a different person to who he was. I’ve had it where I’d date somebody and then you’d break up with them and you’d acquire new things – as a single person – and you’d just wish they could see you now. I think that’s what the character is trying to say ‘Look at who I am now. I have made purchases.’

You mentioned Ringo Starr – aren’t you playing Ringo Starr in Walk Hard?
Yeah. It was fun. We’re not going for Oscar Nominations, or reality, and I’m only in it for a minute, but it was so much fun. I know Jake Kasdan and I know Judd Apatow and Jake called me on a Wednesday night and asked me what was I was doing [the next day] and I said ‘nothing’ and he said ‘Well we need people to be the Beatles in this movie - would you come down and do it?’ and I said ‘Sure’. And its Paul Rudd, Jack Black and Justin Long [as the other members of the Beatles] - we just all went in there and messed around – I’m sure it’s not like precise acting, but it was so much fun.

It was a really interesting way to make the movie too because they were using digital cameras – which means they could roll longer and just keep filming; it worked for a movie like that because it meant you could just keep going… try a few things… before film ran out. Each take would go for about 25 minutes. There’s no stopping or reloading.

And didn’t you just do something with Bill Murray?
Yeah, I did The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Is that done?
Yeah. It was cool. Now it has to be animated. George Clooney and Bill Murray did their stuff separately from me, because I was on a press tour, so I had to do mine in London. There was a moment when it looked like George Clooney, Bill Murray and myself would come together to do some recording – but it didn’t come together.

I was set to do it in London over one day – a full day. I asked Wes [Anderson] whether we could put aside some time first to talk about the movie, my character, his motivation… and so on. He said ‘Sure, we’ll be fine… we’ll rehearse first and then talk about those things later – way before we record anything’. So anyway, it got to Friday, the day we were recording, and again I said ‘Can we talk about it?’ and he said ‘We’ll be fine, we’ll rehearse it… we have the whole day’.

Anyway, it’s about 2 o’clock – bear in mind I have a dinner at 8 o’clock that night – when we go check out the puppets. 7 o’clock rolls around and we still haven’t recorded anything. He says ‘Should we cancel it? It might seem a bit rushed now if we do it”, and I said ‘Yeah, it’ll be too rushed – lets cancel it’. Thing is, he’d already paid the money for the studio. So, he says ‘Lets just go in there and mess around [anyway]’. And what did we do? We did the entire movie in 20 minutes! Every single take! It was so much fun.

How were the puppets?
So amazing - so great. It’s amazing to think that in this day and age, with the advances in technology and everything, when you do this kind of a movie, which is stop motion, you still have to click, or take your shot, and then move the puppet a little, click again, and so on… all with your hand. It’s hand-made. Amazing stuff.

What DVDs are we likely to find in your DVD collection?
All kinds of stuff! I tend to rent a lot of movies that would be rentable, and buy a lot of movies that aren’t available for rent. My collection isn’t necessarily full of everything I love – there’s just no other way to see some of them except to purchase them. An example would be the Scott Walker documentary that came out called 30th Century Man, which I couldn’t rent anywhere, so I just bought it. I also bought the BBC documentary called All My Loving – a documentary about 60s music – and also have had to buy a lot of Beatles and Beach Boys stuff.

And movie-wise, all the titles that you’d expect are in my collection, like – and these are some that I’ve watched over and over again – the Hal Ashby movies and The Last Detail. I have films by Altman, Bergman, Cassavettes – all their movies; Bottle Rocket, and I love movies like School of Rock, Willy Wonka, Wizard of Oz, The Last Unicorn – animated movie, I love that movie! – Labyrinth, Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie, and Lisztomania. I also like documentaries – but one’s that aren’t like your usual documentary, more PBS-style – where there’s no creative bench to it, there’s just facts; things like ‘how a building was made’ or ‘how a record was made’.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED is in selected cinemas now
WALK HARD is currently screening across Australia